It started off as a season or so, then rose to three transfer windows, about 18 months; but this week Ralf Rangnick gave a more realistic appraisal of how long it might take Manchester United to catch their rivals: six years.
Erik ten Hag was on Thursday confirmed as the new manager so Rangnick can drop the Pollyanna act at last. He no longer has to pretend it is all going to be fine. Rangnick’s briefings on Manchester United’s transition period have always been wildly optimistic. Even a period of two seasons appears over-confident given what we are now seeing.
How many Manchester United players would get in at either Liverpool or Manchester City? Right now, none. City would rather continue without a striker than drop one of their forward midfield players for what is available to United.
Man Utd need an overhaul - Erik ten Hag's job is not to tinker but to demolish and start again
Liverpool’s midfield was once considered functional, but no longer. Bruno Fernandes, previously considered United’s brightest spark, wouldn’t get in there now. The Premier League’s biggest club have been left behind.
United do not need a reset, but a complete overhaul, meaning Ten Hag’s job is not to tinker but to demolish and start again. David de Gea aside, would anyone survive if money was absolutely no object?
Ten Hag will understandably prioritise in the summer but with so much work to do that will leave weaknesses that could undermine any tilt at the title. United pretty much need a new defence, a new midfield, and an upgraded forward line.
Let’s not pretend these are issues that can be resolved in one transfer window, or even three. So many factors need to fall into place. United need bottomless cash reserves — which they no longer have given UEFA’s new financial fair play regulations and an absence of Champions League football — players that want to sign for them, and that can immediately adapt to a new team, and maybe a new league.
They need so much to go right; and experience suggests football recruitment doesn’t fall neatly into place like that.
Take some of the targets. Declan Rice, Harry Kane. One question: why? It is possible that both players could reach the Champions League this season with their current clubs. Rice is now an England regular, Kane captain of his country. So they’re not doing badly as it is and, if available, Manchester United are unlikely to be their only option, and probably not their best.
United’s rebuild very much presumes they will land their top targets, the type of players their more successful rivals also want. Chelsea have their issues and uncertainties, too, but are significantly ahead of United even in adversity. They will have new owners wishing to make a statement, and a production line of saleable talent far more appealing than United’s.
The ubiquitous presence of former Manchester United players in the media makes them appear an attractive club, but their current predicament undermines this.
Former United men such as Gary Neville and Rio Ferdinand are always trying to sell the outstanding individuals from lesser teams to United. Yet what has a move to Old Trafford done for Harry Maguire, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Raphael Varane, Jadon Sancho — even Paul Pogba? United is where talent goes to die right now.
What's a move done for Paul Pogba and Harry Maguire? United is where talent goes to die now
Agents may still love them because the cut’s great — but a player such as Rice cannot possibly look at what has befallen other young English players there and think this is the same club Ferdinand joined. And as Kane continues his search for one elusive trophy, where is he most likely to win it? Where is his perfect foil, his Son Heung-min, at United?
So it is far from guaranteed that Ten Hag lands his targets and, if he does, what is to say they are swiftly successful? Many recruits are new to the English game and few hit the ground running like Luis Diaz.
More typical is Thiago Alcantara. He had bad luck with injury when he first arrived, as did Liverpool, which may have made settling in difficult. So it is only now, more than a year on, that we are seeing the player we recognise from Bayern Munich.
It is the same for Timo Werner at Chelsea. Suddenly, he has clicked. Yet Thomas Tuchel had almost given up on him when that happened. He couldn’t get in the team and had Romelu Lukaku lived up to expectations, who knows where he would be now?
Werner’s not alone. Some of the greatest imports to this game — Didier Drogba, Jaap Stam, Dennis Bergkamp — had slow starts. The idea that United will sweep up a virtual starting XI who will adapt effortlessly and instantly to the Premier League is fanciful.
Pogba was familiar with English football but has never lived up to expectations. And playing for Manchester United contains unforeseen pressures that can intimidate even the most confident soul: ask Alexis Sanchez.
Liverpool’s recruitment has been masterful but the cycle that eventually produced this squad has still included the purchase of Takumi Minamino, Ragnar Klavan and Marko Grujic. Not everyone adapts and, needing to recruit in such numbers, United cannot afford too many misjudgments.
It is close on impossible to reshape United’s squad in a window or two. Pictured: The club's owners Avram (L) and Joel (R) Glazer
The presumption is that Manchester United will be back, because they are a big club, and the modern game is set up to benefit its elite. And this may be true. Liverpool eventually won a Premier League title; Arsenal are creeping towards a Champions League return.
Yet it is close on impossible to reshape United’s squad in a transfer window or two; so much needs to be done, and so much needs to go right.
Ten Hag will want to be optimistic, but Rangnick’s most recent pronouncement has most bearing on reality. United are coming… in 2028.
SOMETIMES WOMEN'S FOOTBALL EXPLODES, OTHER TIMES IT BARELY POPS
This season’s Europa League final will be held at the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan Stadium in Seville. Quite why UEFA would make it a potential home match for a club that has won the tournament in four of the last eight seasons, who knows. They’re either incompetent or corrupt and it is sometimes hard to know where one stops and the other starts.
Thankfully, Sevilla are not there, but potential home advantage is no longer the only problem with the location. It’s too small. Sevilla’s ground holds 40,000 and one potential finalist, Eintracht Frankfurt, took 30,000 to a quarter-final tie in Barcelona.
If they are not there, West Ham will be and the numbers are likely to be similar. Rangers could end
